Peter Gregg (racing driver)
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Peter Holden Gregg (May 4, 1940–December 15, 1980) was a racecar driver during the golden age of the Trans-Am Series and a four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He was also the owner of Brumos, a Jacksonville, Florida car dealership.
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[edit] Background
Gregg was born in New York City, the son of a mechanical engineer and manufacturer of marine incinerators. He had a passion for auto racing and continued his race driving after he had become financially successful with a car dealership and bank directorships.
He graduated from the Deerfield Academy, a private prep school, in 1957 and moved on to Harvard University, where he earned a degree in English. He moved into a career in film making, coupling that with a stint as a squash player and then as an automobile racer. He began with gymkhanas and ice races after an initial appearance in a hill climb in 1958 in Laconia, New Hampshire. After his graduation from Harvard, he moved to Europe and attended the Centro-Sud Driving School. He then joined the U.S. Navy and became an Air Intelligence Officer, and was assigned to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. He was at this time married to Jennifer Johnson and had two sons, Jason Gregg and Simon Gregg.
[edit] Racing career
April, 1963 he drove an unmodified production Corvette in Osceola County, Florida and won the SCCA sanctioned race. He became a serious Porsche racer in 1964 with a Porsche 904 and then moved into competition with a Carrera. In August 1965 he purchased a local Porsche dealership named Brumos Porsche after the death of the owner, Hubert Brundage. He was the SCCA's Southeastern Division champion in 1967 in two classes and had scored victories in Daytona and Sebring. In 1968 he acquired a Mercedes-Benz dealership. In 1968, he entered competition in the SCCA's Under-2-Litre section of the Trans-Am Series. He won six Trans-Ams and the title in 1969 and also took the SCCA's B Sedan National Championship. In 1970, he opened a third dealership called SportAuto selling Fiats and MGs.
In 1971, he was part of the major Trans-Am Series, driving Bud Moore Ford Mustangs, alongside teammate George Follmer. He won the Trans-Am Series in 1973 in a Brumos Porsche and again in 1974. By this time, he was involved with IMSA and won the IMSA GTO overall championship in 1971 and 1973 earning him the nickname "Peter Perfect" possibly a reference to a character in a Hanna Barbera Cartoon called the "Wacky Races" and his clean cut Naval Officer image. In 1973 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche Carrera co-driven by Hurley Haywood. He then announced his retirement, to lead a life as a director of the Jacksonville National Bank, a club tennis player and a speedboat racer out of the Ponte Vedra Yacht Club.
He retracted his retirement and went on to win the 24 Hours of Daytona three more times, in 1975, 1976, and 1978. He won IMSA GTO overall championships in 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979, giving him six career titles in the class. But in 1980, he was due to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a 924 Carrera GTS for the Porsche factory team along with fellow American Al Holbert, but was injured in a road accident and his place was taken by Derek Bell.
[edit] Death
Peter Gregg died December 15, 1980 at age 40 shortly after getting married to Deborah. The official finding was suicide. Reports at the time suggested that Gregg was suffering from a progressive and incurable nervous system disorder which would have slowly degraded his physical capabilities and would have eventually been fatal - and that this, in the context of his perfectionism, was what motivated his suicide.
At the time of his death Gregg had achieved a reputation as one of America's greatest and most successful road racers.
Deborah would subsequently take over the business. Gregg's endurance racing partner, Hurley Haywood, would assist Deborah Gregg (herself a racer), and son Simon (another racer too) in the dealership, with Haywood being the main partner in Brumos today in both the dealership and racing operations.
In 1991, Brumos Porsche entered a two-car Porsche team in the newly created IMSA SuperCar series and won three straight manufacturer’s championships for Porsche with a pair of traditional white, red, and blue 911 Turbos.
[edit] Awards
- Gregg was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992.
- He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2000.
